Garter and garment supporter



R. N. KLASS. GARTER AND GARMENT SUPPORTER.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT.24, 1920.

Patented Oct. 3 1922,

atented Oct, 3, 1922.

n rm s'ra'res RAYMOND N. KLASS, OF DES MOINES, IOWA.

GARTER A NlU- GARMENT SUPPOBTER.

Application filed September 24, 1920. Serial 1%. 412,502.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RAYMOND N. Knees, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of DesMoines. in the county of Poll: and State of Iowa; have invented certain new and useful Garters and Garment Supporters, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a garter of very simple construction, having a member adapted to encircle the leg, and provided with fastening devices at each end, and to provide a downwardly hanging member having at its upper end a fastening device adapted to coact with said first two fastening-devices, and provided at its lower end with a garment engaging member.

A further object is to provide such a garter in which the leg encircling member. is made of two parts, and having two of said downwardly hanging members. v Still a further objectis to provide a garter having two downwardly extending members connected at theirnpper ends, and having at their upper ends a fastening device designed to he detachably, and quickly and easily connected with a coacting fastening device for securing the downwardly hang ing member to a support.

With these and other objects in view my invention consists in the construction, ar-

rangementand combination ofthe various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claims and illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a perspective view of garter embodying my invention. 3

Figure 2 shows a side elevation of the downwardly hanging member. Figure 3 shows a plan view of one of the fastening devices.

Figure at shows a plan view of the coactin fastening device.

igure 5 shows a front elevation of a slightly modified form of my garter.

Figure 6 shows a front elevation of one of the parts of the leg encirclingmember adapted to coact with the form of garter shown in Figure 7. a

In the accompanying drawings I have used the reference numeral 10 to indicate generally a strip or band of elastic webbing forminga part of my garter and designed to encircle the leg of the wearer.

Secured to one end of the strip is a fasteningdevice, such as is shown, for instance, in'Figure 4, indicated by the reference character 11,

' The other end of the strip 10 is folded and lapped over the body of the strip and is detachably secured thereto by an ordinary sliding fastening device 12.

Supported by the overlapped portion and the body of the strip 10 is a fastening device 11, similar to that already described.

For coacting with the leg encircling strip 10 I have provideda downwardly hanging member 13, provided at its upper end with a circular enlarged pad portion 13 'in'to which is secured afastening device similar to the button device commonly used on gloves, and shown in Figure 3, said device being indicated by the reference character 14. I

The upper end of the member 13 is provided with a circular portionfor the purpose of forming a pad of suflicient size to protect the leg from coming in contact with the metal portion of the members 11 and 1% as clearly shown in Figures 1, 2 and 5 of the drawing. The diameter of this enlarged portion or pad should be such that the outer corners of the fasteners 11 will be substantially even with. the outer edges of the said circular pad so that as the mean bers 11 swing about thelouttons 14, the outer corners of the said members 11 will travel or ride on the outer edges of the said pad, thereby holding the outer edgesof said pad adjacent to the leg of the wearer, and thereby preventing the said edge from turning up or under and causing the outer edge to he curled or wrinkled so that it will not be pressed into the flesh by the tension of the members 10 or 16 and 17. Any swinging movement of the members 10 or 16 caused by the contraction and expansion of the muscles of the leg will'have a tendency to smooth out the outer edge of the pad, the pad, as shown in Figure 2, being somewhat exaggerated for thickness as the said pad is comparatively thin as actually constructed.

At the lower end of the downwardly easily detached from the member 13, and the member 13 may beleft attached to the garment.

is sometimes easier and preferable to disconnect the garter from the garment.

,. In Figure .51 have shown a modified formof my garter which comprises the relatively long strip of elastic webbing 16, having at each end a fastening device 11 similar to that already described.

. A relatively shorter strip of elasticwebbing 17 is provided havingat its opposite end fastening devices 11. v I lViith the formof my garter illustrated in Figures 5 and 6 I employ two downwardly hanging members 13 each similar in construction to that already described. In the complete garter shown in Figure 5 the, strip 17 is interposed between the ends of the strip 16 and the fastening devices 11. The opposite ends of the strips 17 are fastened to the respective fastening devices lt on the respective downwardly hanging members 13. The fastening devices 11 at the ends of the members 16 are also fastened tot-he fastening devices 14 on the respective downwardly hanging members 13, all as shown i" Figure 5.

It will be seen that with the form of my invention illustrated in Figures 5 and 6,

i the stocking or half hose may be supported at two different points spaced from each other.

The garter may be unfastened at either of the fastening devices 1 1, or if desired the fasteningdevices 15 onthe lower ends of the members 13 may be left attached to the garment, and the strips 17 and 16 may be removed.

The garter shown in Figures 5 be used either as arightor left.

If desired, the member 13 may be. =lcft secured to the garment and either end of the strip 16 may be unfastened for removing and 6 may thegarter from the leg.

In Figures 7 and 8 I have shown a slightly different form. of-my invention.

. Twostrips 18 of elastic webbing have fastening devices similar to those already mentioned at their lower ends, andare coniiected at their upper ends to a common member 19. Secured to the upper end of the member 19 is a fastening device 11, similar to those already described.

The double downwardly hanging device just described, is designed to be connected with the fastening device 14 on a member 26, which may be fastened to a garment in any ordinary way.

The construction shown in Figures 7 and S is particularly designed for use for children.

I desire particularly to call attention to the advantages of the form of device shown in Figure 1, some of which'have been already referred to. There is a single pivot to which both ends of the leg encircling member, and the upperend of the fastener member are detachably secured. lVith an ordinary garter having a pad to which the leg encircling member is sewed, the garter is fitted to be worn with the webbing arranged particular angle to the pad. If the pad is not placed in exactly the right position on the leg, the parts will buckle and rub. 'The garter is really adapted for use with one size of leg only and does not readily adjust itself to the leg but in many instances will buckle as suggested.

lVit-h the form of garter shown in Figure 1, where both ends of the leg encircling memher aresecur'ed to a pivot, such member will 1 naturally and automatically adjust itselfto the shape of the leg. lVith. a pad garter there is no stretch in the pad and when the leg expands'or contracts with muscular action, the garter binds, whereas with my structure free expa'nsion and contraction is possible entirely around the leg. The webbing may be readily replaced when worn. The. amount of sweat absorbing and heating surface of material isreduced to a "minimum so that the garter is cooler and more comfortable than would otherwise be the case.

Another advantage of my construction lies in the fact that the pivot member 14: is mounted in a protecting pad of such diameter that it will lie beneath the exposedmetallic parts of the member 11 in sucha manner that the said parts will not come in contact with the. leg of the person wearing the sup-porter.

Some changes maybe made in the. details of the construction and arrangement of my improved garter, without departing from the real spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is myintention to cover by my claims-any modified formot structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may be rea'son ably included within theirscope.

1 claim as my invention: a

1. An improved apparel garter comprising in combination a strip of elastic webbing designed to encircle the wearefis leg, a fas teningdevice-secured to each end thereof, a circular pad, a hose supporting member fixed l to the lower portion of said pad, a button fixed to and projecting from the central portion of the pad, said fastening devices and said button so shaped and arranged that the fastening devices are pivotally connected with the button, the said pad being of such size that it will underlie the two fastening devices and protect the leg of the wearer from coming in contact with either of said fastening devices in any position of their pivotal movement, said parts being so shaped and arranged that both ends of the elastic Webbing are attached to said button and no tension is applied to the sides of the pad that might cause it to bind upon the wearers leg, and said parts being also so arranged that during the pivotal movement of the said fastening devices relative to the pad they will tend to smooth out the pad and prevent it from creasing or wrinkling.

2. An improved apparel garter comprising in combination a strip of elastic Webbing designed to encircle the wearers leg, a fastening device secured to each end thereof, a circular pad, a hose supporting member fixed to the lower portion of said pad, a button fixed to and projecting from the central portion of the pad, said fastening devices and said button so shaped and arranged that the fastening devices are pivotally connected with the button the radius of said pad being substantially equal to the distance of the farthest corner of said fasteners to the center of said button so that it will underlie the two fastening devices and protect the leg of the wearer from coming in contact with either of said fastening devices in any position of their pivotal movement.

3. A device of the character described comprising a circular pad, a band, a garment supporter attached to and projectin from said pad along the radius of the pad, and fastening means between the ends of said band and the center of the pad constructed and arranged to permit the ends of said band to extend exactly along radii of the pad at various angles and adjust themselves independently of each other, said fastening means lying within the confines of the periphery of the pad.

Des Moines, Iowa, December 29, 1919.

RAYMOND N. KLASS. 

